Kevin Davis                                                                                                                   March 22, 2002                              

St Tammany Parish President 

PO Box 628

Covington, La 70434

Dear Mr. Davis;

I am writing to you about the proliferation of signs placed illegally on public property, i.e., highway rights- of- way and utility poles.

As you know, the current ordinances prohibit this, along with littering. Yet there is only sporadic enforcement, and no fines for offenders. I have followed the instructions on your Anti Littering web page by signing affidavits and turning them in to Justice of the Peace Connie Moore(Over 100 in the last three months). Yet the signs remain, some since December, and to my knowledge, no one has been fined (You can not rely on fines to the violators as many can not be contacted). This is not the way to deter the offenders!

As the owner of a business in St Tammany, I have to pay for a permit to put a sign up on property that I own and pay taxes on. Yet these businesses, some from out of the state, get free advertising on our utility poles, all the while draining money from the Parish.

The most recent violators, while getting permits to place election signs, claim they were told, by the  Permits Office, that it was OK to place their signs on Public Property! They are campaigning for the Ward 3 Constables position, a position that is supposed to enforce the littering and illegal signs law. The Code Enforcement office is trying to do its job by removing signs in violation, while the Permits office is giving the OK to violate the law. 

The only solution to cleaning up our roads is swift, fair and even enforcement of the laws on the books. All Parish employees should be told to remove any sign they see on the highway rights-of-way and utility poles. They should not  wait for a concerned citizen to complain. This should not be a twice a year or even a once-a-month effort, but a daily one. It should be a standard policy for every department that travels the roads of the Parish. If you remove signs as soon as they go up, regardless of who put them up, the offenders will get the message.  Most signs are placed along the busiest roads so we are not talking about hundreds of miles to cover. The Causeway corridor, I-12,  Hwy 21, Hwy 59 and Hwy 190 in the Mandeville and Covington areas would get about 90% of the signs in West St Tammany.

After a long conversation with Lane Carson about re-writing the enforcement section of the Code Of Ordinances, he advised me that we already have laws against these snipe signs at the Parish and State level. We simple need to enforce them. He agrees that we will never be able to fine the offender because we can not prove who that is. We must remove the signs. In order to be constitutional, the signs have to be held for a period of time, at a location where the owners can pick them up. (The State Attorney General’s office ruled that way on the Jefferson Parish Ordinance) A neat pile next to the dumpster on Koop Dr would suffice nicely. After 1 week, the pile would be discarded and another begun.

I have offered my labor, the Parish could pay me $10/month (so I would be an employee), to remove all signs along Causeway Blvd from Mandeville to Lee Rd, but everyone laughs at the idea. So I drive that stretch every day and fume at the number of abandoned signs in the neutral ground. Today I counted 21! For pictures of the many violations, go to my web page on the subject at :

http://pineapplegallery.com/illegal_signs

With your leadership, we could have cleaner roads in a short time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Hew Hamilton